We know that Acer beat everybody to the punch with the announcement of the W3, which is the world’s first Windows 8 tablet to fit in an 8-inch display form factor. Still, one thing we’ve learned about the mobile market is that being the first to announce something is not a guarantee that it’ll actually reach the market faster or be more affordable than the rest of the competitors that’ll arrive at the scene.

Such is the case of Toshiba, which just announced the Toshiba Encore, and offers a sweeter package than what Acer is offering with their W3. Both tablets run on Intel Atom chips, but the Toshiba Encore runs on one of Intel’s new quad-core, Bay Trail chips, proving that good things come to those who wait. To make matters more interesting, the tablet’s dual microphones and 2 megapixel front-facing camera will be offered with Skype certification out of the box (which is funny since there are tons of products without this that work just fine), and a $330 price tag that definitely beats the Acer W3 by an attractive margin.

The Toshiba Encore is slated to begin sales in November, which is also code for it running Windows 8.1 out of the box, so stay tuned for more details. Our hands-on coverage of this device should be on the air very shortly.